


Are You Worried?

by Maewen



Category: Galileo (TV Japan)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 21:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1111619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maewen/pseuds/Maewen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yukawa realizes something about detectives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Are You Worried?

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions the events in Galileo XX.

There was another round of laughter as the group of detectives rewatched their favorite part of the recording. Touma Kento sulked at his desk, pretending to work on a project, hoping that the rest of the guys would forget he was there.

 

“Excuse me.” There was a tap on his shoulder. Touma turned and looked up. A tall, well-dressed man was looking back at him. He pointed to the monitors the other detectives were all laughing at, which again showed Touma slipping on and falling over a woman’s bag. “Is that you?”

 

“So what if it is?”

 

“I happened to catch the beginning of that footage. The woman in it--” The well-dressed man stopped and considered. “When did this happen?”

 

The woman. The man must have been talking about the part that showed Johnen knocking over and then beating Utsumi-san. Touma was already grumpy and sullen, having been asked by a higher-up to come in to an office he wasn’t familiar with to replay the footage. “What, do you get off on this sort of thing or something?”

 

The well-dressed man’s eyes suddenly seemed to turn icy. Touma gulped. “Uhh, several months ago.”

 

“I see.” The well-dressed man then turned away from Touma, as if the young detective had suddenly become insignificant.

 

“Um,” Touma started. He hesitated. Well, he had already put his foot in his mouth before. What’s a little more? “Do you know Utsumi-san?”

 

The well-dressed man turned back to Touma.

 

“Yukawa!” a friendly voice called out.

 

It was Detective Kusanagi. Touma had met him after the Johnen incident. Utsumi had introduced them to each other and had said Touma had been a big help. It was one of the rare times someone had said that about him without any trace of irony or derision. Touma quickly scrambled to a standing position.

 

“Ready for lunch?” Kusanagi looked over at Touma. “Oh, have you guys met? Did Utsumi introduce you?”

 

“Er,” Touma looked back at the well-dressed man. “No, actually, we just met. Touma Kento.” He belatedly wondered if he should have added “detective”.

 

“Friend of mine from college, Associate Professor Yukawa Manabu at our alma mater. He’s often consulted for the ‘impossible cases’,” Kusanagi said, clapping Yukawa on the back.

 

Yukawa gave his friend a wary look. “Please stop introducing me like that. The last thing I need is for another one to come and interrupt my work.”

 

Kusanagi laughed. “We’ll leave you to your work then, Touma. Until next time!”

 

Touma sat back down. He thought for a bit and then sent an email.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t unusual for Yukawa to be distracted when he was thinking about an experiment or problem, but normally that would have been apparent over the phone. When Kusanagi had called him this morning to ask about having lunch together, the professor had seemed clear-headed enough. Now, however, Yukawa put utensil to mouth, with little comment about the items actually going inside his mouth. Or anything else.

 

“Something bothering you?” Kusanagi asked, spooning some noodles.

 

Yukawa’s eyes became playful for a moment. “I should be asking you that. You called me.”

 

“For lunch! Just that!”

 

“Hm.” Yukawa slowly sipped at a spoonful of soup. “The detectives in that office, they were watching something.”

 

Kusanagi rolled his eyes. “I warned them about watching inappropriate things in the office, even if it is close to the holidays.”

 

“No. It seemed to be surveillance footage. That detective I was talking with before, he was in it.”

 

Then Kusanagi understood. “Utsumi didn’t tell you about it?” More a statement than a question. “Well...you do exude a vibe that says, ‘I have no interest in things not related to physics.’ In fact, not only is this a vibe, you’ve said it in actual words.”

 

Yukawa frowned. “She's told me all sorts of other nonsense.”

 

Kusanagi swallowed a fishball. “What would you have done if she had told you?”

 

He didn’t look it to anyone else, but Kusanagi could tell that Yukawa was sulking. “She didn’t tell me, though, so it’s hard to say. Perhaps if she were to tell me about some similar situation she were in, I could--”

 

The detective interrupted him. “So you expect her to be in similar situations?” Kusanagi could almost physically feel the conversation turning.

 

Yukawa, caught off-guard, frowned again. Kusanagi pushed on, “She’s a field detective. It would not be unheard of if she were injured or worse.”

 

Yukawa suddenly put his chopsticks and soup spoon down. “Excuse me, I just remembered an experiment I must get back to.”

 

Kusanagi had gone too far too fast. “Sorry, I didn’t mean--”

 

Yukawa tossed some bills on the table. “Let me pay, as an apology.”

 

Kusanagi decided it was better to let it go at that. “All right then. Next time then?”

 

Yukawa nodded curtly and left.

 

Kusanagi finished the rest of his meal lost in thought. After setting his chopsticks on the empty bowl, he took out his phone and sent an email. It was time to throw some gasoline on the fire.

 

* * *

 

Utsumi had taken to spending her free nights watching anime, first in Japanese and then dubbed in English to get familiar with the language. She took all the suggestions from Touma and eventually had to tell him to stop suggesting ones with busty or barely-clothed females.

 

She paused the show when the email notification lit up on her phone. It was from Touma.

 

_Hey, met a friend of yours today. I think. He had on a nice suit and was interested in the footage from the Johnen case. Just thought I’d let you know, in case it is an issue or something._

 

As vague as it was, Utsumi could only think of one person who fit that description. She jumped a little when the phone buzzed in her hand. An incoming call from an unknown number. It was common for the detectives she had been working with to call from various locations, so she answered. “Hello?”

 

“Utsumi-kun.” The voice was tinny and far away-sounding, but unmistakable.

 

“Yukawa-sensei? Why are you calling so late?”

 

“It's only afternoon here. Should I ask you why you are up so late then?”

 

And then Utsumi remembered. There were continents and oceans between them. She pulled the phone back and looked at the number again. It did seem to be coming from the US, though. She put the phone back to her ear. “What’s with this number?”

 

“A calling card.”

 

_Oh. Right. Well. I’m glad I flew halfway across the world to hone my detective skills._

 

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the email notification light up again. “Excuse me for a sec,” she said, pulling the phone back again to check her email. This time it was from Kusanagi.

 

_I think you should give Yukawa a call or something when you get a chance._

 

Utsumi blinked at the message. Two emails concerning the professor in one day? She recalled one time when Kusanagi had asked her to check on the professor, years ago, during the Kijima case and was suddenly concerned for him. She put the phone back to her ear. “Back,” she said, then added, “Is something wrong?”

 

“Nothing is wrong. I was just wondering how you were.”

 

Utsumi was dumbfounded. Usually she could deal with the professor, knew exactly what to say to him, but this was new territory. He would never ask. She would tell him, but he would never ask. Then she remembered the first email, the one from Touma.

 

_Are you worried about me?_ were the words on the tip of her tongue. She could say it playfully, like a joke. She swallowed them.

 

She pointed at the still anime image on the television as if Yukawa could see this. “I can understand sci-fi-heavy shows now!” she said excitedly. “In English!”

 

“Ah. And what ‘sci-fi’ is used in this show of yours?”

 

They continued like this for hours, first Utsumi telling him all the interesting scientific discoveries used in the show and then Yukawa debunking the fictional science behind all of them. This somehow lead to discussions of all kinds, including dinosaurs, fashion, and tablet brands.

 

It was three something in the morning and Utsumi’s eyes had begun to droop. She tried to stifle a yawn, and failed.

 

“I’m sorry, I’ve kept you up. Good night.”

 

“Wait, Professor,” she tried hard to keep her eyes open, to focus on the conversation, but she had already nearly dropped the phone several times. “I can...keep talking…”

 

“You should rest when you need to. I've almost used up the minutes on this card anyway.”

 

“Are you...worried...about me?” she asked, her eyes finally closing for the night, the phone slipping from her hand onto the couch.

 

* * *

 

The professor sat and listened. He could tell Utsumi had been asleep for a couple of minutes already. The sound of her breathing relaxed him, reassured him. He soaked it in while he still could, before  he had to hang up, before the minutes ran out, before life had to move again.

 

“Yes.”

 

* * *

 

**To:** Touma Kento, Kishitani Misa

**From:** Kusanagi Shunpei

 

_Worked like a charm!_

 

* * *

 

**To:** Kusanagi Shunpei, Kishitani Misa

**From:** Touma Kento

 

_How can you tell? And did we have to have the video playing for the whole room to see?_

 

* * *

 

**To:** Touma Kento, Kusanagi Shunpei

**From:** Kishitani Misa

 

_It totally worked! I went to the university before and he was on the phone for hours! So I asked the assistant for help instead._

 

_That was a pretty big bag. You didn't see that?_

 

* * *

 

**To:** Kusanagi Shunpei, Kishitani Misa

**From:** Touma Kento

 

_I’m not talking to you! And I had other things on my mind!_

 

_By “asked for help”, did you mean “bother”?_

 

* * *

 

**To:** Touma Kento, Kusanagi Shunpei

**From:** Kishitani Misa

 

_You are too talking to me!_

 

_Ha! He’s probably grateful just to have his opinion counted._

* * *

 

**To:** Touma Kento, Kishitani Misa

**From:** Kusanagi Shunpei

 

_Can you guys remove my address from this conversation?_


End file.
